Rockwell Settles, Pays $75,000 to Ex-Worker With Leukemia

Rockwell International has agreed to pay a $75,000 workers compensation settlement to a former employee who has leukemia, according to papers filed with the state Workers Compensation Appeals Board in Ventura.

In settling the case, Rockwell did not admit liability for the illness of Gary Shoop, 52, of Thousand Oaks, who worked nearly 20 years as a laboratory technician at Rockwell’s De Soto Avenue plant in Canoga Park, and later the Rockwell Science Center in Thousand Oaks.

In his compensation claim, Shoop alleged that he was routinely exposed to a variety of radioactive substances and toxic chemicals at Rockwell, where he worked from 1961-69 and again from 1979-88.

Approved Last Month

In the settlement agreement approved last month, attorneys for Rockwell and Shoop said “a bona fide and good faith issue” remains as to whether there is any link between the workplace exposures and Shoop’s leukemia, a cancer of the blood.

Shoop worked at the De Soto plant from 1961-69 for Atomics International, a Rockwell branch which has since been absorbed by the firm’s Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne Division. Shoop said his duties included testing the nuclear fuel that Atomics manufactured at the De Soto plant in the 1960s.

During the same period, he was also assigned work with radioactive materials at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory west of Chatsworth, where most of Rockwell’s nuclear work has been done.

After leaving Rockwell for a sales job, Shoop returned in 1979, working at the science center until the end of last year, when he was placed on medical leave because of his illness.

Shoop said he also worked for less than two years in the late 1950s for a nuclear fuel fabrication company in western Pennsylvania.

In an interview this week, Shoop said he “definitely had an exposure to” toxic and radioactive materials during his years at Rockwell. But he praised the company for what he called its “caring attitude,” saying “safety . . . is the mind-set” at Rockwell. “Those people tried very hard,” he said.

‘Long Process’

The company does not believe Shoop’s illness is work-related, but it would be “a long, unproductive process to try to prove that,” said Jim Wettleson, director of human resources and communication at the science center, which has about 400 employees, more than one-third of them with doctorates.

The $75,000 settlement is a substantial amount for a workers compensation case. Rockwell previously settled five other claims of radiation-induced cancer involving former workers in Canoga Park or Santa Susana, company officials have said. Those settlements ranged from a low of $2,500 to a high of $90,000, according to a company spokesman.

The Shoop settlement provided for payment of $63,750 to Shoop and $11,250 to his lawyer. Shoop also is to receive lifetime medical care and is to be continued on medical leave status until eligible for his retirement pension at the age of 55. Shoop also waived his family’s right to seek death benefits.